AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’ve been with Austin since I was fourteen. I moved out of my father’s house and in with Austin. I’ve never been on my own.”
Being alone is overrated.
Her gray eyes find mine, and the hopeful uncertainty I see in them twists my gut. Her next words escape like a plea, “I need to know I can do it.”
Fuck. She needs room to bloom.
I scrape the contents of my plate into the trash and set it in the sink. “I leave tomorrow.” I trudge down the hall, my feet like lead weights, making the journey away from her that much harder.
“Good luck.” Her whisper barely reaches me.
You too, Angel.
Apartment hunting totally sucked. Lili accompanied me, and though she tried to be upbeat, she was as disappointed as I was by what my budget would allow.
As soon as the door to Gabriel’s closes behind us, she tries to cheer me up. “Maybe you should stay here, or your current apartment. You said it’s paid up for two more months. It would give you time to save more money, and maybe something better will come along by then.” She’s selling, but I’m not buying.
“I can’t stay there, not with how things ended. Plus, what if Austin comes back?” No one’s heard from him. Donovan says he’s fallen off the face of the earth. He withdrew some money from our joint account a few days after he left. He was in Vegas at the time. Luckily, he didn’t wipe me out. I opened a new account and moved half of the balance. It seems fair. He can have the rest. After all, we both earned it.
“You should have taken all the money.” Lili’s a mind reader too, apparently.
“Just because he’s an ass doesn’t mean I have to act like one too.”
“But you could afford a better place.”
Nope.“I’d feel dirty. I’d rather live in shit than be a shit.” I learned that lesson from my dad, except he’d rather be a shit, treat me like shit, and amazingly enough—we still lived in shit.
“God, that’d make a great t-shirt.” She makes a note on her phone.
I know what I’m getting for my birthday. I shake my head as we make our way to the kitchen. “Hungry?”
“Always.”
Our snack of cheese and apples devoured, I sit on the couch staring at the blank TV while Lili talks to Donovan in the other room. This is my first full day out of the sling. My shoulder aches, but nothing me and a few Advil can’t handle. It’s a good sign. Hopefully, I’ll be able to return to work in a light load capacity. I’ll have to leave the massages and manipulations to the contractor Cap brought in, but I can assess and oversee.
Now, if I can only convince Captain and Gabriel of that fact. I have a follow-up on Monday, and I don’t plan to leave the doctor’s office until I have a note saying I can return to work. I’m going stir crazy, and, though Cap is paying me while I’m off, something about medical paid leave, I can’t help feeling guilty.
“You can stay with us.” Lili frowns, scanning the room, the black TV, and then back to me. “Are you going to watch the fight?”
Gabriel has the TV all set to stream most fights that are only viewable from the internet. “I hadn’t decided.” I rarely watched Austin fight. It’s hard to watch the guy you love get beat up or hit someone with such anger and bad intent on their face. I know it’s part of the package I signed up for, and I don’t have a problem watching other MMA matches. It’s Austin’s I can’t stomach. Maybe it was a clue to the man he eventually became as I’ve seen his anger and intent to inflict harm this past year, and he wasn’t in the ring—he was fighting with me.
She grabs her purse. “I’m going to head home to watch with Donovan, but I wanted to tell you, you can stay with us. We have our guest room. It sits empty most of the time. You’re welcome to use it for however long you need it.”
I have no doubt she talked Donovan into agreeing. They like their alone time, and with a baby, those times are few and far between. “I don’t want to cramp your style.”
Her laughter is genuine and warm. “Oh, we’ll still fuck at every opportunity. You being there won’t stop us. Trust me.” She squeezes my arm as I walk her to the door. “Think about it?”
“Yeah, okay.” A quick hug and she’s down the driveway. “Thank you for going with me today.”
“Welcome. I wish we’d had better luck.”
“Me too.”
“Call if you need anything.” Her eyes roam Gabriel’s large home.
It’s larger than any place I’ve ever been before. He’s come a long way. I know he grew up with nothing, like Austin and me. We all had tough upbringings. I had Austin to rely on. Gabriel, well, I don’t think he relied on anyone—he had his sister and mom he looked after—but I doubt he reliedonthem.
“If it’s worth anything, I think you should stay here. See this thing through with Gabriel. You’re good for each other.” She points to the house. “And he obviously has plenty of space.”
